Ethan Harfenist

Reporter/Editor

New York, New York

Ethan Harfenist

Featured

The most expensive coffee in the world can go for $100 a cup, but it comes with a hidden cost: the well-being of a forest-dwelling cat-like creature native to southeast Asia. Even in the world of specialty coffees and nitro cold brews, civet coffee—also known by its Indonesian name, kopi luwak—is a benchmark for caffeinated luxury.

Kratom, which has existed for years in a legal gray area, will be classified as a Schedule I drug at the end of September. Update: After a public outcry, the DEA has decided to withdraw its proposal to ban kratom. For Angie Ross, 51, chronic pain has been a daily reality for several years. Diagnosed with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis in 1998, Ross went about her routine in an opioid-induced haze to deal with the hurt brought on by her conditions.

Politicians are associating with Bernie and trying to mobilize his base for their own campaigns. No matter who secures the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency, the 2016 election season will be remembered as the time Bernie Sanders and his little campaign that could shook the foundation of the American left.

A Brooklyn block party at an auspicious intersection drew an impromptu election night gathering. Hundreds of people gathered at the intersection of Clinton and President streets in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday evening to view the results of the 2016 presidential election. Although the scene was dominated by jubilant supporters of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, feelings of uncertainty and nervousness commingled with the excitement in the air.

In a chic second-story coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City's financial hub, Hang Lam Trang Anh sips lime juice and reminisces about a major turning point in her life: the first time she heard American rapper Eminem. "I was like, 'Damn, this man is so mad!' But I was so mad, too," says Anh, wearing a black tunic-dress and a flashy gold bracelet, her hometown "Saigon" — the city's former name still used by many here — inked in wavy letters on her wrist.

Sok Chenda stood barefoot on a rickety wooden boat, the tropical sun beating down on his baby blue bucket hat. The water was dark, gloomy and brown. The air, heavy and hot. Chenda appeared unfazed, in spite of the enormous task before him. flat, focused and obscured by sunglasses — could have won him the World Series of Poker.

Like many Cambodians before him, Sopheap*, 29, moved away from his home country in search of work and a better life in neighbouring Thailand. His brother was working in construction and suggested he come join him. Sopheap agreed, and left his home in Kampong Cham’s Prey Chhor district. He went through the motions: He arranged to be brought to Thailand with a broker, and planned to join his brother working in construction.

As 230 more Cambodian fishermen are set to return from Indonesia today, those that have already made it home from years of hardship and turmoil on the high seas have found that they are largely in the same boat as when they left years ago. As in much of rural Cambodia, the village is inhabited by rice farmers who practise subsistence agriculture.

The disbanding of a key agency could threaten conservation efforts. In 2013, then Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono established the National REDD+ Agency, the world’s first executive-level agency specially designated to tackle Indonesia’s myriad forestry and conservation issues. The agency was lauded at home and abroad as both a landmark achievement and a sign of hope for a country considered a poster child for environmental degradation.

“We need to live, do not impoverish us,” reads a banner hanging over Gang Dolly put up by the Sex Workers’ Front (FPL) in protest to the closure. All photos by Arman Dzidzovic. It was nearly midnight and Pokemon was growing testy. We were standing at the entrance to Dolly, Southeast Asia's largest red-light district.

New threat is reducing the food supply of one of the world's rarest animals. The last of Indonesia's critically endangered Javan rhinoceroses have survived poachers, rapid deforestation and life in the shadow of one of the archipelago's most active volcanoes. But an invasive plant is now posing a new threat to the world's rarest species of rhino.

Palopo, South Sulawesi/Jakarta. When Mahir Takaka arrived in Tonangka, he was greeted with the warmth and familiarity of an old friend just dropping in to say hello. It was 9 a.m. on a Saturday, and about 40 people ― some seated in plastic chairs, others standing with sarongs covering their heads ― had gathered at the hamlet chief’s home.